The Intention is good

Pressbrief

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Amethi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who visited his parliamentary constituency Amethi in Uttar Pradesh on Friday, took a dig at the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre for failing to control the rising prices. The Congress leader also said that there is a difference between what they say and what they do. On being asked about the recent Maharashtra Sadan row, where a Muslim catering manager was force fed by a Shiv Sena MP, Rahul Gandhi blamed the Shiv Sena and the BJP for the controversy. He also said that the ideology of RSS and the BJP has been exposed after Maharashtra Sadan row.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Amethi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who visited his parliamentary constituency Amethi in Uttar Pradesh on Friday, took a dig at the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre for failing to control the rising prices. The Congress leader also said that there is a difference between what they say and what they do. On being asked about the recent Maharashtra Sadan row, where a Muslim catering manager was force fed by a Shiv Sena MP, Rahul Gandhi blamed the Shiv Sena and the BJP for the controversy. He also said that the ideology of RSS and the BJP has been exposed after Maharashtra Sadan row.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi visited his parliamentary constituency Amethi on Friday and thanked people for their support in the recent Lok Sabha elections. He also took part in a 'roza iftar' in Salon later in the evening, besides meeting the common people in Amethi town.

Amethi:Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi visited
his parliamentary constituency Amethi on Friday and thanked people for their
support in the recent Lok Sabha elections. The Congress leader visited villages
in his constituency and interacted with locals and party supporters.

The Congress
vice-president took a dig at the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre for
failing to control the rising prices. He also said that there is a difference
between what they say and what they do. "NDA's biggest promise was that
they will bring the prices down. But vegetable prices have gone up
drastically," Rahul Gandhi said.

"The Modi government has failed to check
price rise & corruption. They made big promises on reducing inflation but
prices are rising," added the Congress MP. On being asked about the recent
Maharashtra Sadan row, where a Muslim catering manager was force fed by a Shiv
Sena MP, Rahul Gandhi blamed the Shiv Sena and the BJP for the controversy.

He also said
that the ideology of RSS and the BJP has been exposed after Maharashtra Sadan
row. "This is the ideology of the BJP and Shiv Sena. They base their
politics on bullying people," he said.

Arriving from
Lucknow by road, he drove to Babupur Sarraiya village in Jagdishpur Block,
Gauri Dubey Kar Purva in Jamo Block and Bansi Thauri in Naseerabad Block. Rahul
Gandhi promised installation of water tanks run by solar power in Babupur
Sarraiya and Gauri Dubey Kar Purwa for convenience of the locals. The Congress
MP also paid a visit to the house of Congress leader Jang Bahadur Singh at
Gaura in Gauriganj assembly segment to condole the death of his son Daddan
Singh who was killed on June 14. Later, he also took part in a 'roza iftar' in
Salon later in the evening, besides meeting the common people in Amethi town.

This is his
second visit to Amethi after parliamentary polls. Earlier, he had visited the
constituency on May 21 along with Sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

New Delhi:Congress President Sonia Gandhi and party
vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday expressed their condolences to the
families of the 19 school children who were killed when a train rammed into
their school bus at an unmanned level crossing in Telangana.

“Smt Sonia
Gandhi has expressed deep grief at the accident in Medak where several children
lost their lives. Extending her condolences to the families, Smt. Sonia Gandhisaid that her prayers were with them in this moment and expressed the hope that
all necessary steps are taken to ensure full road and rail safety, “said an
AICC press release.

"My deepest
condolences to the families of those who lost young children in the terrible
accident in Medak. We must make rail and road safety a priority to ensure that
such accidents do not take place and innocent lives are not lost," said
Rahul Gandhi in a statement.

At least 19
students were killed and some 20 other children injured when the bus of a
private school was rammed by a train at Masayipet, about 70 km from Hyderabad.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

New Delhi:
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son and party vice-president Rahul
Gandhi slammed the Union Budget for 2014-15 presented by Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley, saying it has nothing new to offer.

“It is a mere
continuation of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s schemes. There
is nothing new, they have merely continued our schemes," said Sonia
Gandhi.

Congress
vice-president Rahul Gandhi echoed similar sentiments and called the Union
Budget a laundry list of Rs 100 crore. "The budget is just a laundry list
of Rs 100 crore proposals and is all about usurping UPA government ideas,"
he said."It will not quicken the economic pulse, in fact, it will slow it
down," added Rahul Gandhi.

The Union Budget
for 2014-15 presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Parliament on
Thursday left income tax rates unchanged but provided sops to small and
marginal assessees by raising the threshold exemption limit from Rs 2 lakh to
Rs 2.5 lakh and investments under 80C by Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh while
promising not to bring tax changes with retrospective effect.

Congress general
secretary Digvijaya Singh said the finance minister had gone overboard on
mindless populism by allocating just Rs 100 crore each to more than 28 schemes.
"While there is 12% increase in the allocation for defence, there is no
increase in the budgetary provision for health and education and the finance
minister has totally neglected women's sector," Singh said.

He said there
was nothing extraordinary. "He has spoken of five more IITs and IIMs. The
allocation for the purpose is just Rs 500 crore, when an IIT requires Rs
1,500-Rs 2000 crore," he said. Singh said as leader of opposition, Jaitley
had demanded that I-T exemption limit be raised to Rs 5 lakh, which he had not
been able to fulfill as finance minister. At the AICC briefing, Singh said the
budget did have some minimalist attempts at new direction and new aspects,
which Congress welcomed cautiously, like increasing FDI in defence and start up
fund for village entrepreneurship for rural areas. "But if you see the
vast landscape of the budget, it is a reasonless, directionless, impractical
and unfeasible document. It is totally disproportionate to all the hype created
during their election campaign... Full of sound and fury signifying nothing”.

"If with
this mandate you are not able to give a new direction and momentum, can this
nation expect better from them in future. From your statements it seemed as if
you are going to offer a paradise or a least a mini paradise. At least you
could have offered the promised achche din to people," the Congress
spokesperson said. He also claimed that almost 90-95% schemes mentioned in the
budget were continuation from the UPA regime.

New Delhi:
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today slammed the railway budget, saying
it lacks vision and offers nothing for the poor.

"It's a
poor budget. Many states like Kerala and West Bengal have been left out,"
Gandhi told reporters in the Parliament building following the presentation of
the railway budget by Rail Minister Sadananda Gowda. Kerala is a Congress-ruled
state while West Bengal is ruled by Trinamool Congress, an erstwhile UPA ally.

Rahul Gandhi
said there is "nothing for the poor" in the budget and that it is
"unimaginative" and "lacks any strategic vision". The rail
budget has come under a blistering attack from the opposition with Congress,
Trinamool Congress and Left parties lambasting the government over the issues
of FDI, privatisation and the PPP route.

Congress party
too on Tuesday latched on to the Railway budget to claim there was a
"capitalist" tilt to the functioning of the Narendra Modi government
and that it was bent upon privatising the railways.

Looking to put
the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) dispensation in the dock over railway
budget 2014-15, Congress not only protested inside Parliament but also held an
agitation outside the residence of Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda.

"(The NDA)
government's direction for the country is diametrically opposite to that of the
socialist path. Everything is being done to appease the capitalists. Social
obligations of our (previous UPA) government have been criticised as if we'd
committed a mistake in following them. We apprehend that the government is
heading more and more towards privatisation," Congress MP and former
Minister of State for Railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told reporters at an All
India Congress Committee (AICC) briefing.

Friday, July 11, 2014

New Delhi: In
order to leave no stone unturned to get the post of Lok Sabha's Leader of
Opposition for her party, Congress president Sonia Gandhi met President Pranab
Mukherjee on Tuesday.

The UPA
chairperson had yesterday raised a strong pitch against the silence of Narendra
Modi-led NDA government on the subject. She had also held a meeting with party
MPs in Lok Sabha yesterday. The meeting was held after UPA MPs decided to write
to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan seeking an immediate decision on the
issue.

Congress
spokesperson Anand Sharma had yesterday said that the letter is ready and will
be sent to the Speaker after all UPA MPs had signed it. Ahead of the Union
Budget 2014, Gandhi has maintained throughout that her party was the single
largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha and hence was entitled for the post
of the Leader of Opposition in the Lower House.

Reacting sharply
over no clarity of Congress getting the LoP status in Lok Sabha, senior leader
Kamal Nath had indicated that the party could go to court if Speaker Sumitra
Mahajan's decision went against it. As per reports, there were indications that
the government may not give the LoP post to Congress in keeping with the
Mavalankar formula according to which it was required for the largest
Opposition party to acquire at least 10 percent of seats in the 543-member Lok
Sabha.

According to
formula, the post of LoP can be given to the party which has at least 55 seats
and Congress has got only 44 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls which is 11
short of that number.

Earlier,
Congress President Sonia Gandhi also had held a meeting with party MPs in Lok
Sabha. The meeting comes after UPA MPs decided to write to Lok Sabha Speaker
Sumitra Mahajan seeking an immediate decision on the issue. Party leaders said
that Gandhi's meeting with the MPs was informal in nature. Congress had said
yesterday that the letter is ready and will be sent to the Speaker after signatures
of all UPA MPs.

"We are the
single largest party. We have got a pre-poll alliance. Hence, we are entitled
to Leader of Opposition's post," Sonia Gandhi, who is also CPP
chairperson, had said yesterday. Congress has already asserted that it would
exercise all options to ensure a "democratically correct, logical
conclusion" on the issue and has not ruled out the option of approaching
the court on the matter.

The Congress
party is also doubting the intentions of the Government. It is alleging that
the government is attempting to subvert the appointments of Lokpal, CVC and
other key posts by denying the LoP status to Congress. "Government's
intention is not correct. The thinking is undemocratic... Government is trying
to subvert the appointments of Lokpal, CVC and other key posts by denying the
LoP status to Congress. We will not allow that to happen. We will take all the
steps in Parliament and agitate on whatever forum is available. But let the
reply of the Speaker come first," party spokesman Anand Sharma had said.

About Me

The site, pressbrief.in, is a veritable treasure house of videos, audios and rare photographs featuring the Gandhis. You can surf the site all the way back to Jawaharlal Nehrus the light has gone out of our lives speech. You can rewind to the rivetting 1999 Lok Sabha campaign in Rae Bareli, when Priyanka Vadra ferociously attacked Arun Nehru, calling him a backstabber. And you can watch all of Priyanka and Rahuls current campaign footage.